A first-of-its-kind partnership in Nagaland unites health, wellbeing, and livelihood support under one shared mission for the state’s most underserved youth
KOHIMA, NAGALAND, June 10, 2026. Tovra Works, Nagaland’s emerging career training and skill development brand, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NSACS City Barn, a specialized youth health and wellness initiative of the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS), Government of Nagaland. The signing ceremony was held at the NSACS office, Kohima, and was formalized by Mr. Ahu Sekhose, Project Director of NSACS, and Mrs. Tiarenla Rutsa, Co-founder of Tovra Works. Mrs. Tiarenla Rutsa brings to Tovra Works a distinguished career in public service spanning several decades with the Government of Nagaland, culminating in her role as Additional Director of Tourism. During her tenure, she worked closely with the development and promotion of Nagaland’s hospitality and tourism sector, building deep institutional knowledge of both the industry landscape and the challenges facing youth employment in the state.
This partnership is more than an institutional agreement. It is a direct response to one of the most pressing and under addressed realities facing Nagaland’s youth today: the dangerous intersection of unemployment, purposelessness, and vulnerability. For the first time in the state, a youth health and wellness organization and a career training institution have come together to address both dimensions of a young person’s struggle, recognizing that one cannot truly be resolved without the other.
The Problem This Partnership Addresses
Nagaland is home to thousands of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who exist in a difficult in-between space. They are too old to be considered children, too young to have been given real opportunities, and too often invisible to the systems that could have helped them. Many are unemployed, without direction, and without a sense of what their future could look like. The consequences of this vacuum are well documented: increased vulnerability to mental health crises, risky behaviors, substance use, and a deepening sense of hopelessness.
NSACS Citybarn has, for years, been one of the few spaces in Nagaland where these young people feel safe enough to walk through a door and ask for help. Young people come to City Barn centers seeking counseling, mental health support, testing services, and most fundamentally, someone who will listen without judgment.
What has long been missing is what comes next. After a young person finds the courage to seek support, after the counseling sessions, after the moment of clarity, there must be a pathway forward. There must be something concrete to walk toward. That pathway has now been built.
Through this MOU, Tovra Works steps in precisely at that threshold. The partnership creates a structured, dignified, and stigma-free referral corridor that connects youth from City Barn’s network directly to Tovra Works’ career training programs. A young person who arrives at City Barn carrying the weight of uncertainty now has the option to leave with a plan, a professional goal, and a support system designed to see them through to employment.
This is the bridge. From vulnerability to livelihood. From invisibility to professional identity. From uncertainty to a career.
Why This Partnership Makes Sense
The alignment between both organizations runs deeper than referral logistics. It is philosophical.
NSACS City Barn has always operated on the understanding that youth wellbeing cannot be reduced to physical health alone. Mental health, self-worth, social connection, and a sense of purpose are equally critical. A young person who has no income, no direction, and no professional identity is a young person at risk.
Tovra Works was founded on an identical premise. The brand’s entire architecture is built on the PIES Framework: Psychology Informed Employee Support, a training philosophy that goes far beyond teaching job skills. PIES recognizes that the young people entering Tovra Works’ programs are not simply unemployed. They are individuals who may carry histories of rejection, self-doubt, family pressure, and social stigma. The framework ensures that every candidate is supported psychologically, emotionally, and professionally throughout their training journey, building the inner foundation that allows a person to not just get a job but to thrive in one.
When Tovra Works and NSACS City Barn sit across from each other, they are not two organizations with different mandates finding a point of overlap. They are two organizations with the same core conviction operating at different stages of the same young person’s journey. City Barn holds the space where healing begins. Tovra Works holds the space where the future is built. Together, they now hold the full journey.
For Nagaland’s youth, this partnership carries a message that is long overdue: You are seen. You are not alone. And there is a future waiting for you.